Hi all,
Bob Colenutt, Michael Edwards, Tim Marshall and I, with important contributions from other PNUK members at various stages, have been working for some time to put together a ‘manifesto for planning and land reform’. We now have a draft completed which we hope will generate some debate and discussion about the state of planning and the scope for radical, alternative approaches. You can find a pdf version of the manifesto here: http://bit.ly/Vduhe6

We would welcome comments and discussion on it, and are planning to hold events in London and Sheffield in either late 2012 or early 2013 to debate the issues.
We hope to hear from you or see you there.

A 4-day conference to be held at the University of Exeter, 18-21 April 2013

We are delighted to announce that three plenary speakers have already been confirmed:

Paul Gilroy, Anthony Giddens Professor of Social Theory at the London School of Economics

Dolores Hayden, Professor of Architecture, Urbanism and American Studies at Yale University

Anders Stephanson, Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Professor of History at Columbia University

The conference will begin after lunch on Thursday 18th April and will close after lunch on Sunday 21st April.

American Studies at Exeter
American Studies has a long-standing presence at the University of Exeter. The research interests of staff include transatlantic literary relations, American criminality, film noir, the literature of the suburbs, the Hollywood blockbuster, US immigration, Seattle in the 1990s, the American musical, the culture of the American South, Irish American identities and literature, childhood in America, the Ku Klux Klan, and contemporary American comics. The University holds several major resources that are of interest to American Studies scholars, notably the American Music Collection (one of the largest archives of American popular music outside the United States) and the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture.

Exeter is located 12 miles from the sea, in the county of Devon, home to several Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Dartmoor National Park and the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site.

Call For Papers
There is no overarching theme to the conference, and papers and panel proposals are welcomed on any subject that falls under the remit of American Studies. We invite proposals from individuals and from other interest groups including associations linked to BAAS, such as the APG, BGEAH, BrANCH, and HOTCUS. Half a century after 1963, we invite proposals inspired by the events of that year and the tumultuous decade that followed. 2013 also represents the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and we welcome suggestions for related papers and panels.

Proposals for 20-minute presentations should be a maximum of 250 words and include a provisional title. Proposals by two or more people sharing a common theme are warmly invited and we welcome panels that cross disciplinary boundaries. The conference organisers hope to continue the initiative shown at previous BAAS Annual Conferences by scheduling roundtable discussions and innovative panel presentations, and we encourage such proposals as appropriate.

UCL Cities Methodologies 2012
Inaugurated in 2009, Cities Methodologies is a pan-UCL initiative to showcase innovative methods of urban research. Through exhibits and events, it draws together undergraduate, masters, and doctoral research, alongside work produced by academics, and the wider community of urban researchers. Proposals are invited from UCL staff, students and alumni, and other researchers who are developing and using innovative methods to understand cities and urbanization.Continue reading SHOWCASE, EXHIBITION: UCL Cities Methodologies 2012, UCL London. Deadline: 1st May 2012, 5pm

Call for proposals – The Dubai International Award (DIA) for Best Practices to improve the living environment
UN-Habitat and Dubai Municipality offer you an opportunity for global recognition through the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment.

Criteria for best practices
The 9th cycle of the Dubai International Award (DIA) for Best Practices has been launched by UN-HABITAT, its partners and Dubai municipality. DIA is looking for urban programmes and potential best practices, that have made an impact on people’s living environment. Best practices are outstanding contributions to improve the living environment. They are defined by the United Nations and the International Community at large as successful initiatives which:

The European Architectural History Network (EAHN) is organizing its second pan-European meeting in Brussels in 2012. In accordance with the EAHN mission statement, this meeting proposes to increase the visibility of the discipline of architectural history, to foster transnational, interdisciplinary and multicultural approaches to the study of the built environment, and to facilitate the exchange of research results in the field. The main purpose of the meeting is to map the general state of research in disciplines related to the built environment, to promote discussion of current themes and concerns, and to foster new directions for research in the field.

Though the scope of the meeting is European, members of the larger scholarly community are invited to submit session proposals related not only to Europe’s geographical framework, but also to its transcontinental aspects. Session proposals are intended to cover different periods in the history of architecture and different approaches to the built environment, including landscape and urban history. Parallel sessions will consist of either five papers or four papers and a respondent, with time for dialogue and questions at the end. In addition, a limited number of roundtable debates addressing burning issues in the field will also take place at the meeting. Proposals are sought for roundtable debates that re-map, re-define, and outline the current discipline. They will typically consist of a discussion between panel members and encourage debate with the audience. The goal is to create a forum in which different scholars can present and discuss their ideas, research materials and methodologies.

Scholars wishing to chair a scholarly session or a roundtable debate at the 2012 EAHN Meeting in Brussels are invited to submit proposals by 19 December 2010 to hilde.heynen@asro.kuleuven.be , Prof. Hilde Heynen, General Chair of the EAHN Second International Meeting, KU Leuven, Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Phone: +32 16 321 361. A conference website will be online shortly.

By the time of registration for the conference, participating membership in the EAHN (with an annual membership fee) will be required to chair or present research at the meeting. A link on the website www.eahn.org will soon be available to enable anyone to join the EAHN as a dues-paying participating member.

Proposals in English of no more than 400 words including a session or roundtable title should summarize the subject and the premise. Please include name, professional affiliation (if applicable), address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address, and a current CV. Proposals and short CVs should be submitted by e-mail, including the text in both the body of the e-mail and in the attachment.

Session and roundtable proposals will be selected on the basis of merit and the need to organize a well-balanced program. A few open sessions or roundtables may be organized by the Advisory Committee, depending on the response to the following call for papers.

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